Why???

Im very curious about something.....

Why is everyone connected with Theatre in any way obsessed with Shakespere?

Personally I think his plays are dull and boring and totally overdone. I also think that most people just like his work because its 'Cool' and 'Popular' and 'Everyone else likes it' Im not really sure if anyone REALLY even understands it!

And yes, i have studied Shakespere, so I do kind-of know what im on about.

Gee Clare,

You sure have a way with words and attitude that sounds suspiciously like Secret Squirrel...hhmm....

J

Hi Clare

How could i resist a piece of flame bait like this?

Clare wrote:
-------------------------------
> Im very curious about something.....
>
> Why is everyone connected with Theatre in any way
> obsessed with Shakespere? [sic]

(hey, he couldn't spell his own name. why should i correct your spelling)

I guess you've just answered your own question.

Everyone connected with theatre is _not_ obsessed with Shakespeare. If you'd like to form a "Shakespeare is over-rated" club i can name quite a few people who will gladly join. Noel?

> Personally I think his plays are dull and boring and
> totally overdone.

Can you be a little more specific? Which plays? Which bits? And why do you find them dull, boring and overdone? Examples are always useful.

> I also think that most people just like
> his work because its 'Cool' and 'Popular' and
> 'Everyone else likes it'

Possibly. I'm not "most people" so i wouldn't presume to speak for everyone.

> Im not really sure if anyone
> REALLY even understands it!

I'm sure no-one really does. In fact, when it comes down to it, i'd be highly suspicious of anyone who claims to fully understand any play, ancient or modern. Including the playwright themselves! There is always so much to discover and learn. That's at least part of the enjoyment.

> And yes, i have studied Shakespere, so I do kind-of
> know what im on about.

I studied Checkov at uni, read half a dozen plays a few times, saw four live productions, did a two week intensive workshop at WAAPA, watched performances on video and still couldn't work out why people lauded his work.

Watching my fifth live production of Checkov the penny suddenly dropped and i saw and understood why people loved his work. Now i can't get enough it.

Be careful. One day, watching Shakespeare, it might happen to you.

Cheers
Grant

It's odd. I was just thinking this morning about how much it pisses me off when people say they think Shakespeare's the greatest playwright, when it's really obvious that the only reason they think this is because they don't know of any other semi-important playwrights. I don't mean that I dislike Shakespeare, I just think that there are millions of other playwrights worthy of higher or closer recognition in their different styles of theatre. As Grant said, Chekov is fantastic in his own right, like Wilde (who I'm not even a fan of, but must be respected for his work regardless).

I have no idea where I intended to lead with this...hmm...I'd probably be better off chasing butterflies or something constructive like that...

Angela. xxoo

This is spokily like an argument i continually have with a certain pretty birdy I drag along to Old Bill's stuff in the hope that one day he will see what I see in the texts, beauty, economy and real raw power (when it's done well, which I have to admit it hardly ever is).

My advice is go and see Bells "Dream" which I think is still on. It was a bit overdone but seriously funny. And it wasn't particularly modernised or overplayed, it was an example of trusting the universal themes and the humor in the language. The Hamlet I saw at the Academy a few months ago is another example.

I think the main reason people have such an resentful hatred of Shakespeare is that it is contantly butchered. Try and see a good one, and open your mind. If you start from the position of "I'm not going to understand this and I'll hate it", then you'll be right. Yes, in order to appreciate Billy you do need to (shock horror) concentrate and give it a bit of thought, it won't be spoon fed to you like so many modern texts are, but if the actor on stage knows their craft well enough and knows what they are saying, you will too.

This is of course coming from a staunch lover of the Bard, feel free to disagree. Oh and Grant, when is the next Grads Shakespeare?( The worst part of sitting through bad Bard is know exactly what the actors are doing wrong, and knowing you could kick their arses.)

Hi Leah,

I have expressed an interest in directing Romeo & Juliet for GRADS to be performed at the New Fortune. I am yet to hear from them as to whether or not it will be considered. Wish me luck.

JC

Dosn't "Trusting in the universal themes" also mean doing it exactly like Ive seen it done a thousand times before.

clare,
Everybody goes to watch shakespeare not because he actually is any good, but because it makes them comfortable. In going to see a shakespeare you are not really challenged in any way, the true pollitics of shakespeare has been dead for centuries, but the issues involved are universal so they rehash it over and over because all it does is provide an evening of theatre and "high culture" which makes people feel as though they are part of a cultural mcrowd when really that crowd died along with the plague.
that and that it has an important cultural link to our theatrical past.

shhhhhhhh!

hello,
mind If I step in?






Clare wrote:

-------------------------------

> Im very curious about something.....

>

> Why is everyone connected with Theatre in any way

> obsessed with Shakespere? [sic]



(hey, he couldn't spell his own name. why should i correct your spelling)
+This is not entirely true, he could spell his own name he just had different ways of doing it because english was yet to be formalized. one of the ways he spelt it was the same as Clare's.



I guess you've just answered your own question.



Everyone connected with theatre is _not_ obsessed with Shakespeare. If you'd like to form a "Shakespeare is over-rated" club i can name quite a few people who will gladly join. Noel?

+You leave Noel outta this


> Personally I think his plays are dull and boring and

> totally overdone.



Can you be a little more specific? Which plays? Which bits? And why do you find them dull, boring and overdone? Examples are always useful.
+I thought she was very specific "i think his plays are dull and boring"


> I also think that most people just like

> his work because its 'Cool' and 'Popular' and

> 'Everyone else likes it'



Possibly. I'm not "most people" so i wouldn't presume to speak for everyone.
+ yeah dont.



> Im not reall....

The reason why Shakespeare continues to endure changes in style, interpretation and society is because he was able to encompass the human condition so eloquently and succinctly, regardless of the parameters of culture, race, religion and values etc. Here is a man who transcended existance to the point where he could produce a canon of work that speaks to everyone - get over the Elizabethan prose and look at the core of his work...it's all there...love, hate, saddness, suffering, joy....no single playwright has ever eclipsed his unique vision of the human condition as frail, but nonetheless, courageous and extraordinary. He survives constant cristicism, constant reinterpretation, constant change...because at the core he speaks to us all. I defy anyone to name a playwright who has so profoundly effected the course of human introspection and evolution...get over being intimidated by the language...get over the middle-class anxiety of not understanding his classicism...read his plays and open yourself to the possibility that he might just be saying something that even the peasants can understand...for God's sake they were there in the pits cheering him on with the gentry...get over the cultural cringe and find yourself a legitimate vantage point from which to criticise him with some credibility and integrity. He's a big boy...his work speaks for itself and it will answer any scepticism...build a bridge and get over it and hell, maybe you'll begin to wrestle with the human condition the way he was open to...there's a Shakespeare in all of us, a Hamlet, a Macbeth, an Othello, a Romeo and Juliet. "To be or not to be, that is the question." BE!

Thankyou Jamie, you saved me the trouble!!
INDI